The food was so good I'm planning to go back tonight - just 2 nights after finding the place and…read moreeating the best beef shawarma I've had in a long time. The owner was an incredibly friendly and accommodating host and served up the food with a smile. The friendly regulars who were there added a nice touch to the experience. Great place!

Being in a pizza community group means I'm always craving pizza…read more Living on the north end of Providence, I have my fair share of choices. But there was one spot nearby I hadn't been to since November and it was high time I went back. That place is Zesty bites. They're located on that last stretch of Smith St before you cross over in North Providence. I always manage to find street parking in the front but there's more around the corner as well. Imad was in there cranking out a HUGE catering order! There were covered pans everywhere, ready and waiting for the client to come and pick up. But that didn't stop Imad from taking a moment to shake my hand and ask how I was doing lately. I didn't want to take up much of his time as his Friday night was just kicking off but he is genuinely a warm and friendly person, you can't help but smile when he smiles. I took home a Pesty Chicken, house pesto with turkey bacon, onions and chicken, plus a hefty slice of his gorgeous baklava. After my 5 minute drive home I got to it immediately. The pesto is herbaceous, salty from the Parmesan. The turkey bacon is not what you find Butterball making but rather, this was of a much higher quality and was an actual piece of sliced meat instead of a formed amalgamation of ground turkey. All of those ingredients sang while being supported by the incredible crust. I don't quite know how to describe it. It's light, fluffy, but crispy. Crunching into the crust scratched a part of my brain I didn't know needed it until I bit into this little slice of heaven! The baklava looked as good as it tasted. Sweet, spiced, and it had this deep flavor I can't quite put my finger on but it's probably top 3 best I've ever had. If you haven't visited Imad and his shop up over on Smith Hill, then you are missing out on a unique and delicious experience. 10/10, great pizza. Great food all around, no matter what you get you'll love it!

Santoro's has been my go to for a great hot Italian or American sub, an occasional gyro or some…read moreweiners or pizza...it is some of the best memories of that neighborhood when I lived in NP and still seeing as I only live 5 mins away in PVD now. I have never had a bad meal here & the prices are awesome. They do have some limited seating if you want eat in...give it a try sometime!

The service is always accurate. Great pizza shop. It's family friendly. The food is always…read moredelicious :)

This place is super close to my house, and the food is really yummy, bartenders are always super…read morefriendly! There are some really tasty options for non meat pizzas which is great! I only wish they were open later, at least on weekends. There aren't many later night spots to grab a bite around here, and this would be my first pick for a late dinner base on quality and taste!

We've had great sandwiches & other meals at Tumblesalts, but I do not recommend their pizza…read morestation! Their pizza was undercooked & dry, we asked for well done. And it was raw in the middle. We took a bite, spit it out, We ordered a Calzone as well, and the thing seemed to be made from cornmeal mush, and it was flat, sauceless and tasteless...absolutely horrible...like a dry piece of cornbread! FLAT as a pancake, inedible. I realize this may have been an off night, but if this is the norm here, do NOT waste your money! This was $60 including the tip. NEVER AGAIN. Adding: No we didn't contact the restaurant, it was late, we had traveled and were hungry. Ended up making us eggs instead that night.

This was my first visit…read more That's worth saying up front because Rosa Mia has been around for a very long time. There are people in Johnston who have been eating this pizza for most of their lives. They don't just know what it tastes like. They know what it's supposed to taste like. I had none of that. No childhood stake in this one. No fourty year memory to argue with. Just a thick, square pie and an open mind. The first surprise was the crust. This is a substantial pizza, but it didn't eat that way. The top and bottom had real crunch, crisp and golden brown, buttery, with the bottom almost looking like it had been fried in oil. Then you get through that shell and everything changes. Soft. Chewy. Light and airy. Delicious. That contrast was the best thing about the pizza. The cheese was harder to figure out. It never really browned, even around the edges where the crust was getting dark, and the flavor wasn't quite mozzarella. Sharper. Fuller. If I had to guess, I'd say there's some provolone working in there, blended in rather than announced. I could be completely wrong. Whatever it is, the cheese tasted like something. That's not as common as it should be from a lot of pizzerias. Then there was the sauce. On this particular pie, there just wasn't much there. Thin. Almost apologetic. Salt was the only note that really came through. I didn't get much tomato. I didn't get much herb. Nothing really pushed back against a crust and cheese that were doing most of the work. And that's where Rosa Mia and I probably part ways a little. Plenty of people talk about this as some of the best pizza in Rhode Island. After eating it, I understand why. That crust is excellent. The cheese is distinctive. If those are the things you care about most, this is a genuinely good pizza and absolutely worth trying. But I'm a crust-and-sauce guy. I need both. Maybe that's also the difference between discovering a pizza and growing up with one. If Rosa Mia had been down the street from my house when I was ten, maybe this is the pizza I'd spend the rest of my life defending. I understand how that happens. This is exactly the kind of neighborhood pizza that gets wired into people that way. But I didn't grow up with Rosa Mia. I got to meet it at 59, with no memories attached and nothing to judge except the pizza in front of me. Great crust. Really interesting cheese. A sauce, at least this time, that didn't give me enough. Really good pizza. And close enough to great that I understand why somebody else might have spent fifty years insisting that it is.

We ordered online for pick up, which was about 45 minutes on a Friday afternoon. We ordered the hot…read morehoney pizza, regular pepperoni, and buffalo tenders. Everything was delicious! Our favorite was the honey pizza. Can't wait to try other things on the menu!

Delicious wraps! We had the tandoori and the tikka. Crispy fries, too! I would go back.read more

Flavors, on Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence is a halal restaurant that decided to enter…read morethis year's Lord of the Pies competition. That sentence tells you everything about what's happening here. This isn't a pizza place that added some fusion items. This is a halal spot doing tandoori chicken wraps and lamb keema that figured pizza might work as part of the mix. The space looks sharp. Dark ceilings. Woven pendant lights hanging at the right intervals. Plants everywhere that actually work instead of looking like an afterthought. Someone put real thought into making this place feel modern and welcoming, which matters when you're trying to pull off a menu that spans continents. Looking at what they're actually doing makes sense once you understand the concept. The chicken tikka pizza. The lamb keema pie. The spicy donner option. That's where their expertise lives. That's what they know how to cook. The margherita exists because the competition requires it, not because it's their signature move. And you can tell. What arrives looks fine enough. The cheese melted properly. Some color where it should be. But the first bite reveals a pizza still finding itself. The dough eats doughy. Not undercooked, just that texture that makes you think prefab even though it's not. It lacks character. No real chew. No complexity. Just dough being dough without much personality behind it. The cheese does its job. Good coverage. Proper melt. It's competent cheese, which counts for something. But competent cheese can't save ratios that don't make sense. Because there's barely any sauce. What little made it onto this dough doesn't contribute much. No brightness. No acidity cutting through all that cheese. No presence. You're essentially eating cheese bread, which might work as an appetizer but doesn't work as pizza. Then the garlic shows up and refuses to leave. Strong garlic flavor dominates. Not in a subtle, integrated way. Just there, overwhelming many bites, making you wonder if it's trying to compensate for the sauce that forgot to show up. Here's the thing though. Judging this margherita against what Flavors actually does feels slightly unfair. This is like asking your favorite Thai place to make you a cheeseburger. Sure, they'll try, but that's not why you go there. You go there for the pad thai that's been perfected over years. The curry they know by heart. The stuff they actually care about getting right. I'd bet money their chicken tikka pizza works better than this margherita. The lamb keema probably sings when it hits dough with their house spices and proper sauce ratios. The peri peri chicken might actually justify the fusion concept. But none of that matters in a competition that strips everything down to four ingredients and asks if you understand the fundamentals. Forty places entered Lord of the Pies this year. Most of them are pizza places through and through. Places that make margheritas every day and have the ratios memorized and know exactly how their ovens behave. Flavors is competing outside their weight class, which takes guts even if the result isn't quite there yet. The potential exists. The space works. Everyone who works here is super nice and fantastic hosts. The core menu probably delivers. But this margherita tastes like something they had to make rather than something they wanted to make, and that shows in every doughy, garlic-heavy, sauce-lacking bite. Maybe stick to what you know best. Let the pizza places fight over who makes the best margherita. Focus on doing halal fusion pizza that actually uses your strengths instead of exposing your weaknesses. Because I guarantee the lamb keema pizza has more going for it than this one does.

Ordered on grub hub or door dash or some delivery app - which I feel like is always a risk cause it…read morecould take forever and not hold up on the ride. I honestly don't think the delivery was super fast (app life) but the pizza was solid. We got some hot honey pizza with ricotta and bacon and pepperoni and I love the thin crust - it held up really well with the toppings. Good bites. Also got some wings - great size and flavor - I think it was a Thai style. Will order again!

I got a gift card for Xmas and was excited to try it out. We got calzones and let me tell you ,…read morethey were huge. Buffalo chicken. So good. And also stuffed with meats and cheese. A good amount of blue cheese dressing in the side and I was a happy girl. We will be back to try more. Be mindful it's a small place and everything is made fresh. I expect it can get very busy and may be a wait but I say wait. It's worth it !

5 Stars for what may be my favorite specialty pizza ever. Pro-tip: order the G.O.A.T. Pizza…read more We had a hankering for pizza and Francesco's absolutely hit the spot. Their pizza is NY style thin crust (YUM) and though you can order a typical Margherita pizza, I highly suggest looking through the specialty pizza options. We got the G.O.A.T. Pizza which comes with mozzarella cheese, goat cheese, caramelized onions, herbs, and hot honey drizzle. It's even better than it sounds. This was the perfect combo of garlicky savory cheese and sweet honey with the tiniest kick. I could have eaten the entire large pizza on my own. I'm in RI for one more week and trust that I will order this again. I also got the 10 piece order of wings with BBQ sauce and was so pleasantly surprised to see it came on top of caramelized onions! It was there in the description, but I missed it. They were so good I was picking them out by hand and enjoying them. The wings were thick and full of meat. They had an option to get them extra well done, but I love exactly how they came regularly. I would definitely order these again. Overall, super impressed. Highly recommended!

Francesco's has good pizza and it's really easy to order take out and do pick up! They often have…read moredeals going on too. I can't eat cheese and I'm always grateful for pizza shops that offer vegan cheese and a good pizza. Just because I can't eat cheese, doesn't mean I want to eat a lame pizza. And this place delivers on a great vegan pizza! Whether you're vegan, lactose intolerant, a meat lover, vegetarian, or gluten free - there is something for you and this is your sign to order pizza for dinner tonight. They also offer catering, I used them for work before too. Super convenient and easy to work with.

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Anna's Vesuviano Tonno dinner…read more This dinner was conceived when Chef Anthony got some beautiful tuna from American Seafood, based out of Stonington, CT. It was a menu created around the relationship between bread and seafood in southern Italy. As a culinarian by trade, I love dinners like this. I love seeing how a chef's mind works, the flavor pairings, and going on that journey with them. Last night was a wonderful example of that. I attended the dinner solo, my usual cohorts at a different dinner taking place in the city. But I don't mind solo dining. The best part about being solo last night? I was sat at the bar front and center, a veritable chef's table without the high price tag I paid the extra for wine pairings, and they were generous with those pours all night. Our glasses were filled before every course. The hospitality was warm, the service team made everyone feel at home. The interior had a retro feel, with pressed tin ceilings, counter seating along the windows and a tall bar by the kitchen. The first course was a tuna croquette, a smoked yellow fish canola (cone) and tuna crudo with pickled yellow tomatoes. The croquette crispy outside, and so, so creamy inside. The yellowfish cone had lovely textures, the pistachio crunch coming through nicely. The crudo was delicate and tender, the picked tomato bringing the perfect level of acidity. The second course was a Caserta style pizza. No, not the icon on Federal Hill. But pizza montanara - one that is fried and then baked, popularized in the Campania region of Italy and in the town of (you guessed it) Caserta. The first thing you taste is the Sicilain oregano. The crust is crispy but still had give. No flop if that matters. The tomatoes blanched and precisely peeled so they gave easily when you bit into it. The olives and capers paired with the tuna was like an Italian Nicoise pizza. A great eating experience. Next was the Tuna Fattoush, the salad course. The tomatoes tasted like peak summer when I bit into them. Tang from the lime, the mint almost floral with the sumac, the vinegar soaked bread buttery, tart. The tuna coming in the back end bringing the dish together in a magical way. The Mrs Tuna pizza intrigued me. I didn't know what to expect when I saw black dough. But what I experienced was wonderful. Soft dark bread with creamy stracciatella, and the tuna tartar on top sang against the creamy base. You can taste the burnt notes from the mayo but only in the background. It accented the dish, deepening the flavors in an unexpected way. Bufala mozz course was bright, tangy, salty. I didn't think I'd describe mozzarella as bright but here we are. It was a burst of flavor as soon as it hit my tongue. My taste buds lit up immediately. It was made by Lucas at Mozz in Newport. Go find some and try it immediately. Vesuvius pizza. Wow. I had only experienced Anna's through their various seafood pizza specials. This was my first time trying a classic. San Marzano tomatoes from Mt Vesuvius. 48 month aged Parmesan, the same beautiful fresh mozzarella we had in the previous course, basil and a hefty drizzle of high quality Palestinian olive oil. If you ever wondered what the most perfect Margherita was like, this is it. It's like it was cut out of a textbook. The crust was delicious as always, it's sourdough. The cook was crisp and even with the edge still soft and chewy. And finally dessert. Lemon and basil make sense on savory but I realized how special it can be in sweet. The sumac adding floral notes to the smooth custard and the cool basil gel, a study in flavor conception. Every time I go to Anna's, I continue to be impressed by Chef Anthony and his culinary genius. I know to most, this menu would seem odd or outside of the box for pizza. To a certain extent, that is true. But if you are brave enough to take a leap of faith, I have found I'm often rewarded with the most scrumptious landing. And to say I was rewarded last night for my leap would be an understatement. Thank you again for an incredible dinner, Chef Anthony, Michelle and the team at Anna's Vesuviano.

This is the best pizza in the area! Cute little spot with a couple tables outside as well. They…read morealso have Coca Cola in a glass bottle so points for thatif I want pizza this is where I'm going

What do you do on a gloomy, rainy, cold, crappy Saturday afternoon? You have some GREAT comfort…read morefood and pizza at one of your favorite spots. Love The 78 Pub at This Guy's Pizza. Such a great place to get lunch. The pizza is substantial, filling and very affordable. They have 40 (yes, 40) house pies and these amazing "mouthful" grilled wraps. We got a chicken parm one that comes with these awesome and pretty unique onion dippers. You can't beat the quality, the taste or the price here. Awesome spot for lunch or dinner. And if there's soccer on? This is your spot. The locals are super fanatics in the best way possible. Check it out.

Stopped by the 78 Pub and This Guy's Pizza For a free pizza…read morepromotion they offered to members of a pizza club I belong to. Got to meet Keith in person finally! I brought some of my roommates and we ordered a selection of pizzas. I had been here a few weeks ago with my Lord of the Wings coupon so I already knew I was in for a good meal. It was the first time for my group so I was excited to introduce them. We got an order of the pretzel sticks to start and they were great. I was busy yapping with Keith at the bar when they arrived so no picture of that lol Our pizzas arrived and we dove in. We got the Italian Sausage Margarita, All About That Pig and a black olive pineapple pizza. My group mates really liked the pizza. The pig pizza had an awesome Carolina Gold BBQ sauce on it (my favorite style), the sausage went fantastic on a margarita, new flavor combo unlocked! And the roommate that got the black olive pineapple pizza inhaled it and said that This Guy's Pizza is Two Thumbs Up all the way for her. I really love the texture of their crust, it's a delicate kind of crispy and yields to a pleasant softness. Given that we live about 12 minutes up Route 6 from them, I know it's only a matter of time before we're back there again!